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A Robber in the Village Looks Improbably Familiar

NYPDTimothy Honey of the Bronx is wanted in connection with four commercial store robberies in the Sixth and 10th Precincts. This is a 13-year-old photo.

A mini-crime wave in the boutiques and specialty shops of Greenwich Village has a face, and it looks an awful lot like William S. Burroughs.

Nearly two weeks ago, an employee at the Eskimix Flavor Boutique, a frozen yogurt shop on Bleecker Street, noticed a man outside who shared the thin, pale face and prominent cheekbones of Mr. Burroughs, the deceased writer and beat icon who was once a fixture of the neighborhood.

Moments later, the man walked into Eskimix and ordered a blueberry, raspberry and banana smoothie. “I kept thinking about how he looked like the author William S. Burroughs,” the employee, Andrew Smith, 22, said.

Then the customer pulled out a handgun, pointed it at Mr. Smith and calmly told him to empty the cash register. He took the money and left the $6.45 Berrilicious smoothie behind.

Associated PressWilliam S. Burroughs in July 1986.

That episode, on Jan. 9, was the first in an unusual series of armed robberies that have caught Greenwich Village off guard and put some store owners and residents on edge. The suspect has struck at small independent stores — a frozen yogurt shop, a sex-toy boutique, a Tibetan clothing and jewelry store and a gift shop catering to the gay population — that rarely deal with anything more serious than shoplifting. He has carried out the robberies quickly and quietly, leading several of the unlucky clerks to note his “professionalism.”

The police have identified a Bronx man, Timothy Honey, 46, as a suspect and are seeking information about his whereabouts. They released a 13-year-old police photo but said he had lost significant weight since, then describing him as being 6 feet tall and very thin, with sunken cheeks. No mention of his likeness to Mr. Burroughs was mentioned, although Mr. Smith, the yogurt store clerk, had described him that way to the police.

“The neighborhood is very disturbed,” Mr. Smith said.

Phuntso D. Andrugsurba, the owner of a store that sells handmade clothing and jewelry from Tibet, said that she consoled Mr. Smith right after the initial robbery. The man, she told him, had come into her store first, but left quickly and without incident before going to the frozen yogurt shop a few doors down. She pointed out that nothing like this had happened in her 11 years in the neighborhood.

Less than a week later, last Friday, the man again walked into her store, Semba, and for the first time in her life she found herself staring at a gun. The man asked for all the money in the register, which she had forgotten to empty the night before. She handed over about $500.

“We got right down to business, everything was done in 20 seconds,” she said. “I felt lucky that he didn’t do anything.”

Between the two robberies, the man had visited a nearby sex shop on Seventh Avenue, telling an employee behind the counter that he was looking for something for his wife. “We get that question a lot,” said Zack Hemenway, the manager of the shop, the Pleasure Chest.

Then, as a clerk started detailing some options, the suspect pulled out his gun and asked her to open the cash register. He spoke so quietly that she had to ask him to repeat himself. The three customers inside did not realize that a robbery had occurred.

“I was in disbelief,” said Mr. Hemenway, 29. “The Village is much safer now than it was.”

Just 10 minutes later, the same man ducked inside Rainbows and Triangles, a gift store on Eighth Avenue that caters to the gay population. He pulled out his gun and demanded money. The clerk said there was no money in the register, and the man left. One of the store’s owners, Steven Spiro, 45, said that the last robbery of the store occurred 16 years earlier, and that he was not worried that the neighborhood had become more dangerous.

Perhaps Mr. Honey is Burroughs’ evil reincarnation? I read on ye olde WWW that “The last public event to commemorate William S. Burroughs’ death in October, 1997, was a bonfire ritual based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead.” Would this somehow explain the non-robbery visit to Phuntso D. Andrugsurba’s boutique?

Somebody better get their glasses checked…these two photos show absolutely no similarities. Besides, if the writer chose to come back to “haunt” the area after his death, I doubt he would do so as a common thief in someone else’s body. (smile)

Umm . . . The late Mr. Boroughs shot his wife in the head by accident while playing a game of “William Tell” while drunk in Mexico. He was not your average “Mr. Nice Guy” and he was a junkie who watered his habit every day. Possibly this suspect is more similar to the late WSB than many of the less informed posters above realize.

I believe this police action occurred around rush hour last night. I live on Waverly Place between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, and the number of racing police cars and ambulances was too many to count. Helicopters buzzed overhead and nothing was on TV at the time, but I wondered if the subway had been gassed or bombed. If this police action was to catch a robber, it was excessive and dangerous. They could have run someone over.

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